engleski

Teaching Mathematics in Early Education: Current Issues in Classrooms

Social perception of teaching mathematics in early education is often formally utilized, i.e. it is interpreted as irrelevant and inappropriate for children aged three to seven. In order to find out if mathematics is present in early education, a survey was conducted in 37 kindergartens in three Croatian counties and one canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For that purpose Scale for assessing surroundings and interaction was constructed (scale’s Cronbach’s alpha .93), and its subscale Mathematics was applied (subscale’s Cronbach’s alpha .78). The results show that the frequency of mathematical activities in classrooms correlates with preschool teachers’ levels of formal education, chronological structure of a classroom, and overall number of children in a classroom. So, three-year-olds and mixed age groups have fewer opportunities for mathematical activities, while six-year-olds have mathematical activities on a daily basis. Also, in the groups with less than 15 children, and groups with more than 25 children, math activities are occasional. As far as the structure of materials and type of activities are concerned, preschool teachers organize such activities that allow younger kindergarten children to practice comparing quantity and recognizing patterns (concrete objects, mostly building blocks and jigsaw puzzles) while older kindergarten children can enjoy counting and measuring materials of diverse structures, and geometry. The results suggest that preschool teachers implicitly see mathematics as an academic activity, and therefore design it accordingly to the concept of school readiness. On a pragmatic level, results can be used as a turning point for math activities in the context of early education, i.e. an argument for questioning contemporary pedagogical practice regarding teaching mathematics, and scrutinizing the role of preschool teachers in that area.

early education ; math activities ; preschool teachers ; preschool children

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